Canada’s services to veterans are under attack. Harper’s Conservative government has cut over $113 million from the Veterans Affairs budget, closing 9 offices and slashing front-line positions. Our veterans deserve better. This government is cutting public service budgets across the country, without regard for the safety and welfare of millions of Canadians.

Get the facts

In 2013 and 2014, the Conservative government closed nine Veterans affairs offices across Canada – in Corner Brook, Charlottetown, Sydney, Thunder Bay, Windsor, Brandon, Saskatoon, Prince George and Kelowna. Total served by affected offices = approximately 21, 432.

Total value of cuts to Veterans Affairs Canada as of 2015: $113.7 million

From 2011–12 to the current 2014–15 budget year, the Veterans Affairs staff has been cut by 24% with an additional 1% cut planned by 2016–17. The majority of these jobs were front-line positions.

Veterans Affairs offices are now so short-staffed that there is a backlog of 6 to 8 months in providing requested services to veterans. 1 in 5 veterans suffering from a mental illness has to wait more than 8 months before their requests for help are answered.

Veterans speak out against loss of front line services

How the Canadian government is betraying veterans

The Canadian government promised to take care of veterans from the day they enlisted until the day they die. But drastic cuts to Veterans Affairs staff and services since 2012 mean that veterans are not getting the care they need and deserve.

Vince Rigby and Ron Clarke

Vince Rigby served 22 years in the Canadian military. Diagnosed with extreme PTSD, he credits the workers in the Sydney Veterans Affairs office for saving his life.

Ron Clarke spent 36 years in the Canadian Armed Forces. “I retired with a problem with my back. And then later on I was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, and then arthritis in the hands and then the arthritis in the spine,” he says.

Michelle Bradley

Michelle Bradley and the workers she represents are on the front lines.

As the National Vice President for the Atlantic Region of the Union of Veterans Affairs Employees, she represents the people who work directly with veterans — processing benefits claims and assisting them with their day-to-day needs.

Robyn Young

Robyn Young is only 24 years old, but has already served in the Royal Canadian Navy for eight years. She is currently unable to serve, due to the side effects from surviving both a brain tumour and an unnecessary surgery that has left her with permanent double vision and constant vertigo and nausea.

She has been trying to get help from Veterans Affairs. But the office in Windsor closed last year, along with eight others in Canada.